S-Class Trials: A Battle of Metal and Chains
Introductions Liber stood under the cooling shades of the trees of the dense forests that surrounded the beach, looking on to the terrifying and superiority of the mountains that towered over Liber and the forest, giving a slight smirk as he looked foward to his battle with Sakura and Kai who he was assigned to fight in the trials. Relaxing in the feint breeze of wind that flew through the atmosphere of the woods Liber sighed heavily as a way to wake himself up from the luxury of resting in the woods, as he knew he would need all concentration and power during his fight. Beginning to stretch out his arms and legs, preparing for his fight Liber would reminisce about his time in the army, and stopped for a bit to wonder some more as he remembered the old days of his time back home. He could almost hear the laughing and cries of joy of his fellow soldiers as they sang and cheered in the halls of their military camp, a small drop of a tear came across his eye and rolled down his cheek before falling and plumetting to the ground, exploding in a minuscule burst of water. A crack in the woods suddenly caught the attention of Liber, who quickly wiped his cheek from the tear track and turned around alarmed before noticing who it really was. "Well, took your time now didn't you, Clara..." Liber said as he changed back into a serious tone of expression. Clara walked up to Liber speaking softly. "I didn't need to be here first, I merely needed to be here on time." She then took a look around the area noting the environment as best she could, her mechanical tail swaying side by side. She then started the process of waiting for her opponents to get here. She was ready as she would ever be for the events to come, she had been training for these trials since she read about the jobs of S class and above. While the challenge the S class trials would provide excited her, she was not too concerned with the title, after all her strength and abilities were a rather unique sense all things considered. Then as she heard a branch snap in the distance she turned her head towards the noise looking forward to seeing her opponents and battling them. Sakura instantly sighed as she looked at the branch she had snap. "There goes stealth..." Sakura said to herself as she walked towards the field of vision of her opponents. She looked at Liber first, not getting much off him other than his weird fashion sense and some magical power which was quite big, however, looking at Clara gave her a fright. The metal tail seemed to wife side-to-side, giving the impression of a dog rather than a girl. The worse thing was she didn't feel any vibe off the girl. "I am guessing you Clara and that's Liber?" Sakura said, getting things straight and adding time to assess the situation she was in. She took a glace at Kai, in hope he could maybe in lighten her but they were at a downside. Everyone had been the in the war but Kai and Sakura hadn't, everyone knew each others magic and no one knew what they had nor did they know what they had. Kai briefly evaluated his opponents head to toe before almost instantly scanning the peculiar tail Clara possessed. Her tail was seemingly made of metal. Fascinated, Kai began to ponder what race the female Mage hailed from and what her mechanical arms were used for. Then Kai's attention was quickly drawn to Liber who sported ragged robes. Kai was unaware of the mysterious mage's magical prowess, however, he could sense a sizeable amount of magic power radiating from the individual. After surveying his opponents for a matter of seconds, Kai quietly uttered to himself: "This match should be interesting..." And so the Battle Begins "So this is the Kai and Sakura we will be fighting today huh, honestly just another bunch of kids who don't know what they're getting themselves into." Liber announced to the three mages who have now gathered on the borderline between the deep, quiet forest and the tremendous and humungous mountains, that Liber could see had reached into the sky just above the clouds. "So what'dya say Clara? Think we can handle a couple of rugrats?" Liber politely questioned Clara who stood next to him as he pulled back his sleeves to reveal his hands, cracking his knucles as he stretched them out clenched together. Liber was feeling extremely confident about this fight, though they didn't know it Liber had heard of Sakura before from other members of Libertus as well as acknowledging the existence of her team Rapio, but to no avail was Liber able to get any details about Sakura from her team mates who refused to inform him of such things. As he put down his arms the sleeves of his outfit fell back over them, covering his hands which was starting to build up magic power in them, he thought that it was finally time to get started. "Alright lads, enough chit chat. Lets get started..." Liber proclaimed before vanishing in thin air, using his immense speed that had pushed a gust of wind where he originally was as the members of the field felt the powerful breeze come by. Before any of them could react or realise that Liber was gone he appeared from behind Sakura and Kai before slamming out his hands that he had built up the magic energy within onto the ground, sending chain like shapes from the rocky ground to shoot up and reach for both Sakura and Kai who were standing in place. Clara looked over her opponents both Sakura and Kai. She listened to what Liber had to say but did not initially respond. "Pride comes before the fall..." Clara could see the confidence in Libers face. She made sure to keep an eye on his movements as there was a chance they would fight at a later time. As she got ready to fight she deployed her Titanic Arms augmentation over her two arms. She moved next to a tree, and in one swift motion her tail slashed through the base of the tree and grabbed the tree with one of her titanic arms. As Liber made his attack with his chains she launched her attack using the tree as a blunt object she swung it at the two of them in an attempt to hit them with the tree, she swung high in an attempt to try and assist Liber in his attack. Sakura had no time to gasps at the arms Clara now possessed, she made her move instanly a bit worried that she had to use this move right away, this battle was not something that she could rush into and take a punch or two in the face before getting serious, she had to start serious and stay serious though and though. Sakura place her foot into the ground and started to move, just in the nick of time. Earth models of themselves were there for a few seconds before being crushed by a tree and chains. "Liber possesses Chain Magic..." Sakura noted as she stood still for a few seconds, Kai was a bit further away, her push being a bit too powerful but all that mattered was that she was safe, even so she had no time to take a proper breath as a weird red colour formed out of the ground, Sakura jumped out of the way, ending up on her back and started to scramble away as a mine went off. "Rune magic, one of them possesses Rune Magic!" Sakura said out loud before shouting ove rthe Kai, warning him to watch his step. Sakura didn't even have enough time to prepare an attack, but she was still happy to e able to avoid all the attacks they had thrown at them. Sakura hate for Liber suddenly grew, he was cocky, used Chain Magic and possibly had placed Runes about the terrian. "Well then, I think I found a new rival!" with that Sakura smiled softly beforing standing next to Kai once again. As Kai began formulating a plan in his head, he discretely gestured to Sakura that he could comprehend what she was implying. "I may be able to locate Liber's runes if I gain the high ground..." Kai thought to himself anxiously. In a flash, he darted towards the direction of a mountain which stood firmly behind them. Before he could analyse the steepness of the mountain, a faint glow on the surface of the ground he stood on became visible. "A rune?!" Kai exclaimed aloud. They are everywhere.... As Kai stood on the now triggered rune Liber looked towards the trapped mage as he wonders next to do as time began ticking slower, Liber was in his state of thinking as he began devising a plan so that both him and Clara could take down Sakura and Kai with ease too pass on to the next round. He noticed the enviornment surroundng him, the shade of thre trees which were perfect for Liber to hide in, the great height of the mountains filled with rocks and boulders, it was important that he started to take in notes so that he could understand his situation much better. But he still didn't know what either Sakura or Kai could do, what were their magics? The two kids haven't fought back yet, which means I have no idea what they are capable of. Liber thought to himself as he watched Kai stare at the ground on horror as the rune was about to go off, and remembered how Sakura had swiftly dodged both him and Clara's attack as well as escaping the rune he had placed down, which destroyed some part of the forest around them. There were alot of runes around the forest and mountains, but Liber couldn't remember where some of the runes went, placing him at the same amount of danger as the others. Realising he needed to know what they are capable of doing Liber held out his hand in the shape of a gun as he nodded towards Clara, hoping that she knew what to do, and as time slowly began raegaining its normal speed Liber shot hos hand pistol towards Kai as the might of the powerful rune exploded off the mountain, sending large rocks and debris tumbling down and towards the three mages who stood at the base. Clara spotted Libers hand signal and acted, the runes that were around her had lost enough of their ethernano to not warrant enough of a threat but were still present. She threw the tree she had in her hand at Sakura it twirled in the air aiming to topple Sakura over, in that same motion she aimed the fingers of both her hands at both Sakura and Kai as a barrage of bullets started swarming out from the tips of her fingers attempting to visually overwhelm them with threats to their persons, while the bullets were not exactly the most accurate things in the world compared to the rock slide and the general unknown of both Liber and Clara. As the rock slide started to get close she ducked behind a set of trees behind her and waited for an opportunity to get in close. She disliked how Liber kept the rune traps to himself without informing her, albeit her nature had particular advantages in that respect. She kept her hands low absorbing the ambient ethernano around her. Sakura sighed a sigh of relief too quickly, bullets, runes and a tree, something she was not too happy about, clearly she was getting aimed at, as the objects came towards her. Feeling a little bit shocked and scared for whatever happened to Kai after the rune when off, she started to dodge the incoming tree. Sighing she debated to go offense or not as she tried her hardest to miss the bullets, one hit her in the arm, another just missing her leg. Sakura hissed in pain, she wasn't just playing around, they were real bullets. Sakua wasn't sure what to do, she couldn't dodge forever, as if a reply to her thought, another bullet hit her in her arm again causing her to welp in pain."I.. I won't give up!" Sakura looked over to where Kai would be. She wanted to go up, height would help but a rockslide was coming her way. There was only one thing she could do... She started to jump and run along the base of the moutain, going up a little, using her Chain Magic to cling onto stuff and run up the hill. Up and around she went before she was around where Kai was, just below it. The rockslide came tumbling down fast towards her, somewhere would be Kai. Sakura dodged and search, she wanted to go offensive but without her team mate, she had a problem, espically since a little girl had big metal arms with guns on them! "Sakura!" Kai yelled as he a struggled to evade the ensuing earth and debris that came tumbling his way. Having considered the impulse of the impending landslide, Kai knew what he had to do if he was to save himself and his team mate. Despite having clumps of earth projected at him, Kai adjusted his mind to the flow of the magic in his body and began concentrating ethernano in one area. "Perilous Pillars" Kai yelled as a huge circle started to form around Sakura and himself, releasing a radiant glow in the process. The circle shot out a lengthy cylindrical pillar which rose high above the chaos of the landslide below. "The runes...their everywhere!" exclaimed Kai as he looked over the vast forest. He watched the pillar rise into the air above the ensuing chaos of the massive rockslide that continued to destroy some part of the forest the the mages fought in, the rocky pillar stood firmly as many boulders who rushed into the pillar didn't even make a pt least a crack in the structure, Hm, it might just work. Definitely stronger than a boulder. Liber thought as he turned his attention to Clara, who hid behind the trees in order to avoid the rock fall. I could get me and Clara out of here, but it appears that my runes don't work on her. She had stepped on one of my teleportation runes before the battle and wasn't even transported, so I'm going to be taking a massive guess and say that magic doesn't work on her., Liber concluded on observing Clara's power in just the early time of the battle. Formulating a plan within his head he realised how he can utelise his rune magic alongside Clara's ability to resist magic, "Alright, Clara! I've got a plan." Liber yelled out towards the girl, placing his hands onto the ground which just like before sent chains to erupt from the dirt and latch onto the rushing boulders, slowing down and putting the rocks into a complete stop as many more boulders rushed into them, creating a herd of boulders that were grouped together to prevent more damage to the forest to occur. Since Kai's pillar was made up of a combination of Earth and Magic, Clara can absorb the magic right out of this pillar and bring it down. From there those two up there will fall right down with the pillar and right into grasp., "Clara! Lets get rid of this pillar!" Liber yelled at the top of his lungs as he began forming a large purple arrow in the palm of his hand, throwing the magical arrow towards the top where the two mages stood trapped, "If Divine Arrow doesn't get you, then Clara will". Clara was already in motion a construct of that size most likely was held together by tough ethernano threads, threads that Clara can absorb. Overhearing Libers plan she got in close to the pillar winding up her right fist as she delivered it directly into the pillar creating several large cracks to appear where she hit. But she was not done yet as she delivered the punch she placed her Titanic Arms on the pillar as she did the ethernano inside the pillar almost as if it found itself in a cyclone was getting drained directly from the palms of her hands. The ethernano she absorbed would not only overall improve her performance and put enormous strain on the already weakened pillar. As she jumped backwards the pillar was practically drained and crumbling from the strain of the cracks from her fist and the lack of a solid bind holding it together she wondered how they would react to Libers divine arrow as she prepared for her next move. "Shit! Focus on the arrow Kai!" Sakura cursed, as quickly as she the pillar went up, as quickly as it started to fall. Sakura couldn't help but groan, before screaming in pain. The big guns had to come out, she wanted to keep her magical energy for harder fights, but this fight, they weren't letting her get a free pass. Fire covered Sakura as her screams grew strong, all of it was for their win. She wasn't gonna just lose that easily. Sakura body change, her clothes burned off and her armor fell down, most likely bashed to pieces. Wings pieced out of her back, colours of fire everywhere on Sakura body as she transformed into the Angel of Fire: Jehoel. Kai stood stationary on his earthen pillar as he watched Sakura fall towards the ground and transform into Angel Soul: Jehoel . "Well...I can't stay here forever or Clara will destroy me along with this wretched pillar..." Kai thought humorously to himself. "Earth-Make: Rising Dragon!" yelled Kai. The young Mage conjured up his ethernano to manifest a serpentine dragon comprised of earth. Without hesitation, he jumped onto the dragon and began riding it down to the surface. After seconds of gliding in flight, a purple glint became visible and continued to rapidly grow. "What's this?" Kai said, his eyes squinted. He quickly changed directions at the moment the glint instantaneously revealed itself as an arrow, just managing to narrowly avoid it. "Phew, that was close..." Kai said in relief. After just missing the piercing shot of his divine arrow and the fall of the pillar Liber was impressed by both Kai and Sakure, as he was now able to formulate another plan, "A dragon made out of earth? I'm surprised it can even fly, guess we're going to have to take it down then." Liber thought out loud before pointing out that both opponents were in the air where they couldn't reach them. They haven't won yet, I think we still got this... Liber though before jumping back in towards the trees, reaching into the ground as if he was going to pull something out but from the shadows, Liber began what was faceless figures that had ben spewed out from the darkness as Liber pulled them out. After seconds of pulling and pushing his arms back and into the shadows Liber was finished with his business there as he turned towards Clara who noticed that the pilar was finally falling down, with Liber quickly pointing to the crumbling pillar as if it was orders for lara. But they weren't, because in just a second of their first order these shadow men quickly jumped and pushed the pillar out of the way as many of them began scaling pillar as it toppled over, running towards the serpentine stone rdragon that flew threw the air in the same direction the pillar was falling, with the goal of reaching Kai and disabling him for the time being. As they continued witth their orders Liber faced back to Clara, "Shoot down that Dragon and Kai! Doesn't matter if you hit those shadows, they're just the backup." Liber shouted before gripping his fist and pulling it back, opening it up to resemble a claw of some sort, "I've got a dragon of my own..." Liber said as he fired the pulled back arm to the front as a big white etheral dragon fired in the same direction as Liber's hand, straight towards Kai and the shadows out of the forest. As the dragon neared Kai it opened its big jaws as it attempted to swallow Kai up and the rest of the shadow men, nearing closer the more as it fly through the air. Clara noted both Sakura's transformation and Kai's dragon. It was difficult to gauge Sakura's current state from the current distance that was between the two but if she had to guess that it would boost her power more. Clara analyzing her opponents concluded that it would most likely be easier to take Sakura out of the fight if she could close the distance and absorb enough of her ethernano. Spotting Libers shadow men and then his dragon provided her with good intelligence of Libers capabilities. As Clara heard the order to take out the dragon she checked to see if she had any bullets left unfortunately she had no more bullets left to use and it would take some time for her to generate more, but she decided to improvise with the resources she had available. The Tree that had missed Sakura was near her and so she grabbed it, taking a spear throwing stance and threw the tree like a Javelin at Kai's dragon, if the dragon was put out of commission it would force Sakura to intercede to assist Kai against Libers barrage. The Tree Javelin was aimed solely at the Kai's dragon not Kai himself as a tree javelin injury would most likely not be pleasant at all and Kai has enough of his plate without adding impalement by tree. Sakura finished the transformation quite away from the rest of the people, however, Sakura face became a blank sheet as she looked around the now basically flat land. Clara, she wasn't human, Sakura knew this now but even with Jehoel knowledge she couldn't understand what she was exactly. Her face, still emotionless, looked over to Liber who was transforming himself. Sakura only tutted like he was a small child rather than a strong foe. Gracefully, Sakura moved over to Liber before summoning her blade. A blade that looked like fire and a black handle, something that only the Fire Angel could create. "Liber, shall we have a duel?" with that she landed on the ground and started to attack Liber, aiming for his arm. She was fast, her Angel Soul allowing her to become even quicker than normal but she had the porblem of her insanity. She had to end the fight soon, or she might not be Sakura for too long, after all, she was battling two battles, against Liber and Clara and Jehoel to insure she would stay Sakura and not be possessed herself. "Nice!" Kai mumbled to himself as he descended onto the surface with shadow entities closing in on him. "Now then...I think it's about time I used that..." Kai swayed his hands in an arc-like motion and clasped his hands together. "Changing Art! Apollyon!" he shouted as the magic power exerting from his frame greatly proliferated. Though his appearance didn't change, it was abundantly clear that his magic did and was starting to take a darker tint. Still firmly standing on his dragon, Kai commanded it to fly straight into the region where most of Liber's shadow puppets tended to congregate. "Cyclone!" Kai shouted as he released a huge tornado of wind and pressure that caused a significant amount of shadows to dissipate. All that was left after Kai's carnage were the remaining shadows that scattered across the battlefield. "Your next, Clara..." As Sakura's blade came in to attack Liber's arm, Liber had swift moved his wrist to take it's place, therefore having the blade hit his wrist instead of his arm which may have looked idiotic to the other members of the field but little did they know that Liber's weapon was currently seathed in his sleeves. As the collision of metal shouted in the ruins of what had used to be a forest, Liber grew a friendly yet hostile smile on his face, displayin gthe rows of razor sharp teeth that lines his mouth in order to scare Sakura who had unfortunatly picked Liber to attack instead of Clara. "Heh, wrong choice girl..." Liber said as he pushed the blade back with the same wrist he had caught it with, no blood was apparent on his sleeve so it was for sure that Liber had his weapon tucked away in them sleeves, otherwise how would he survive such a strike. He leaped backwards a good few metres in order to make space between him and Sakura, whipping his arms down to release his secret weapon and as it flowed out from his sleeves Liber seemed to look more sadistic and psychopathic than ever. Long chains of metal knives neatly locked onto eachother to create this sort of chain link that reached twenty metres away from his position, just enough to still hit Sakura must she attempt jumping out of the direction of the swings he was about to unleash. "It was fun knowing you, but we really need to get back to dealing with your friend Kai." Liber proclaimed before small wires from his hands shot out and entangled with the knived blades, these wires were sparking yellow electricity bursts and this deadly combination of metal and lighting was something that Sak needed to be careful of if she was going to fight back. Liber swung his left arm towards Sakura causing the chains to follow back but before his arm was to point towards at Sakura he pulled his arm back as he swung his right arm over him for a downward attack the the long chains. With the left chain snapped back as it violently whipped and neared Sakura in split seconds as the tip of the blade aimed for Sakura's heart, with the right chain cutting through the air as it was to land on Sakura unexpectedly. To top that off all that though Liber had yelled straight to unocuppied Shadow Men that were around his area, causing many of these loyal soldiers to come running to Sakura whilst many of them tried attacking Kai, occupying both enemy mages to their advantage. As he swung the blades at the enemy Liber looked at Clara for just a second before turning his attention back towards Sakura, giving Clara a wink in just that short amount of time he had switched his focus on the field. Clara's analytical mind was firing on full power. She sensed a change in Kai's presence but her face still seemed as calm as it had been since the beginning of this bout. Watching from a distance as Liber and Sakura clashed she observed and added everything she saw Liber do into memory. In the split second she saw Liber wink at her she was already on the move. Clara dashed towards Sakura from behind giving off no audible queue as to her approach. And since she doesn't have magic its near to impossible to sense her approaching as she reached with her right Titanic Arm to grab Sakura in an attempt to lock her in a grab, and in the same motion to absorb as much ethernano from Sakura as she could. The palms of her Titanic Arms absorb ethernano at a much faster rate then just her being nearby but it only works if the palm makes direct contact. This worked well with Libers attacks as long as Sakura didn't notice Clara's advance on Sakura's position and her attempt to grab her, chances are she would lose a lot of ethernano and may even knock Sakura out of the fight. Conclusion Sakura was clearly getting aimed and she wasn't sure if she liked the attention or not. Her face was a blank sheet but a whisper bothered her at the back of her head as Jehoel tried to gain control once again of his own powers. There was far too much for her to dodge, I made a bad choice spiltting up with my team mate, I should of known better than to spilt up. Sakura thought as she missed some chains Liber was throwing at her. As soon as Clara touched her the voice of Jehoel grew stronger and she felt weaker, she didn't even notice Clara. "I am the elade rof Rapio, I am not giving up!" Sakura told herself. She whipped around and tried to kick Clara, hitting her metal arms and breaking her lfoot. Sakura fell, her body still as emotion started to show, tears striking down her cheeks. "I-I need to fight, I want to be strong. Want to prove my wroth to- to them..." Skaura mumbled to herself. Her magic was pretty much gone and the fire erupted from her skin and she sat, naked, weeping to herself. "I am letting Kai down, letting everyone down...2 Sakura countined to mope, not taking her lose easy. She managed to dodge Liber but failed to notice Clara, how did she not notice a metal armed girl? Sakura seem to tortune herself with thoughts that only made her feel worse about her lost. "Am I not strong enough?" Sakura said as she looked up to Liber, her hair which started off perfectly straight was now tangled and matted. With great effort she stood up, "Liber, one day I will beat you,one-on one. You only bet me because of Clara!" Sakura forced as smile as she wobbled and looked at Liber. She wiped her tears away. "You most likely can't even touch me without the help of Clara. After all, it was Clara that did all the hits of me!" With that Sakura hopped and started to attend to the bullets and broken foot. Even if she did defeat Liber, she wasn't sure if she could of took much more of a battle with Clara. Kai watched helplessly as Sakura graciously succumbed to Clara and Liber. "Sakura's injuries are bad enough, I don't want want to force her into fighting again", Kai thought to himself as he he came out of his Apollyon form. "I also surrender!" Kai exclaimed, standing a considerable distance away from his opponents. Kai feared for Sakura's safety and so chose the option of backing down as his only way of relieving Sakura from anymore impending danger, leaving their opponents, Liber Mendacii and Clara Scarlet as the final victors of the match, allowing them to pass onto the next round of the trials. Kai turned to Sakura, he could sense a depressing vibe to Sakura as she laid there defeated, sharing her pain as he attempted to comfort her, "It's alright Sak, one day we can take down Liber. The next time we challenge him he won't know what hit him, because soon we would be more powerful than him than he could ever be." Kai said as he grinned towards Sakura, trying to cheer her up from her low mood. "The boy is right you know, someday you're going to be stronger than me. And when that day comes I will gladly accept your challenge." Liber's voice said as he walked towards the two defeated mages, pulling back his arms as the long chains of knives slipped back within his sleeves and locked in position, ready for the next time that Liber may call upon his weapon again. "I see that you're pretty hurt Sakura, so just before the whole fight I have fortunately placed two teleportation runes just over there," liber said pointing out the glowing rune shapes that laid there underneath of the untouched trees, compared to the rest of the forest which was either destroyed by the landslide or destroyed by the triggered runes, "The runes will teleport you back to the Libertus Guild Hall for you two to rest up if need be, though I'll have to walk with Clara since magic doesn't work on her." Liber said again as he turned facing eith the look of disappointed to his partner. "Thank you Liber." Kai said as he pulled himself from off the ground, dusting off the dirt from on his clothes as he made his way to the teleportation runes, standing there as he awaited for Sakura to come follow him. "Well, I'd say this battle was easy, but I'd be lying." Liber said as he started speaking to Clara, "Whatever the next round may include, good luck to you Clara." Liber said as he saluted Clara off, walking into the direction of the guild hall on foot though just slow enough for Clara to catch up, he obviously couldn't leave his teammate behind. Just hope the forest isn't too expensive to fix, or else that Pharzuph fellow will be furious. Clara grinned as Liber and the others got out of view. Her Titanic Arms reverted back into her normal arms as she looked up at the mountain. "They may not know this, but the ethernano I gathered from this fight will stay with me until the end of the S class trials, I will carry their fighting spirit with me as I progress." She wanted to share this thought with Kai and Sakura but with the teleportation rune she decided to keep it with her until after the trials. "I won, and I didn't let my pride interfere overall i'm pleased with myself. Hopefully the others had a good fight and aren't actively trying to kill the other to win... Nah i'm sure they are treating this fairly..." As she finished her thoughts she darted to the guild hall to await the results of these first rounds. She easily caught up to Liber and passed him as she went to see how the other teams did during their trials.